Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott called the new Pac-12 Network, which is scheduled to launch Aug. 15, a “game-changer for our conference.” Scott noted the conference previously had been “relegated to somewhat regional exposure for a lot of our games.” Scott: “With our partners ESPN and Fox, all of our football and basketball games are going to be on the air and be fully national in terms of exposure. What that’s going to mean for our programs exposure-wise is tremendous, and financially our schools are going to have resources they just haven’t had before.” Bloomberg TV’s Mark Crumpton noted the development of the net “could not come at a better time,” as the college sports market “is growing exponentially.” Crumpton: “Could this deal have been done, say, five years ago?” Scott: “I don’t think so. A lot of things have been done by other conferences and the market (is) very hot for college sports right now. We decided to launch our own TV network in part based on the success of the Big Ten Network, and that’s something that didn’t exist five years ago. The SEC did a terrific deal with ESPN and CBS where they raised the bar financially. We’ve benefited by some of our predecessor conferences doing strong deals.” Scott noted the conference retained enough content in the deals with ESPN and Fox “to launch our own TV network.” He said, “In the long-term, that will be the real game-changer. … Being in the media content business ourselves, we think as technology changes and all of that, we will benefit financially exposure-wise for our schools” (“Bloomberg Bottom Line,” Bloomberg TV, 5/23).
